Tree was to make men long lived that were to eat of it and for this reason was called the Tree of Life I do not see how this one Tree had been sufficient for all the Progeny of Adam in case they had not sinned or however it would have been very inconvenient for men to have come from America to Eden for these Vivifical Apples All this looks very surprizing Credentius and is too much like a piece of the old Poetical Divinity Cred. It is true The Relation of the two Trees not ridiculous things look very strange and odd that are unusual which makes us we can hardly forbear laughing at an old Fashion after some time of disuse though we liked it well enough when it was common Now the State of Innocence and the lapsed State of Mankind being so very different we must suppose that there were some things consonant to the first State very disagreeable to our present one and this is but reasonable to imagine Now of a great number of these Moses has reckoned but a few amongst which are these Trees As for the Tree of Life I cannot imagine any thing more agreeable to such a State of Innocence Now a State of Innocence supposes Immortality for Death came by Sin and something was requisite to make men Immortal when their Bodies naturally were not so Indeed God might have done this by his immediate Almighty Power but he generally cooperates with second causes Now what fitter means can we suppose for the continual renovation of Mens Bodies without any manner of decay than the fruit of such a Tree If some Food of an extraordinary quality be requisite why not the Fruit of a Tree as well as the Flesh of an Animal as well as an Herb a Root or any thing else When God had designed that Mens Bodies should never yield to decay or Death methinks it was very reasonable for him to direct them to the eating a certain fruit of a Tree whose juice was of that spirituous nature as to impregnate their blood with an indefectible vigour and to keep them in a constant Youth without pain or disease or imbecillity 'till such time as he should translate them to a better World And this I take to be the use of the Tree of Life It is uncertain whether or no this Tree was but one single one and always to be continued in Eden if there had been no lapse it is most probable many of them would have been transplanted to other parts of the World as the innocent Off-spring had increased but when Mankind had sinned it is probable that God destroyed this species out of the World as being now grown useless and inconsistent with the Curse and Punishment of Man And this the Heathens seem to have some traditional notion of when they speak of the Nectar and Ambrosia which maintained the Immortality of their Gods and Moly which was the great Panacea celebrated by the Heathen Poets As for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil it was I suppose called so not because it had a vertue to confer any such knowledge but because the Devil pretended in his Temptation of the Woman it had it receiving its name from that unfortunate Deception And tho' God calls it the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil before the Fall yet that is related by Moses by way of Anticipation as if I should say the Romans Encamped in Essex or Middlesex though neither of those places were then known by that name And as for that other place v. 22. Behold the Man is become as one of us to know good and evil I look upon that to be only a bitter Irony to upbraid Man with his foolish disobedience and disappointment Phil. I suppose you will hardly be able to get off so well with your four Rivers as you have done with your Two Trees I find here that your inspired Author was as bad at Geography as the Turks are at Chronology They have both a good will to their cause and therefore will garnish it out with all the fine things they ever heard of Thus the Turks when they would make King Solomon as brave a Man as they can make Alexander the Great the Master of his Horse and twenty other great Men Lacqueys and Foot-Boys to him And thus Moses when he would describe a curious Garden makes four of the greatest Rivers in the World to be in lieu of Canals in it He does not matter the great distance of place and the different sources of the Rivers but jumbles together all Asia and Africk O.R. p. 35 c. to make a pretty little Garden for Adam to dress Here is Tigris and Euphrates and Nilus and Ganges as the Interpreters explain them which have their Origin in this spot of ground so that it must reach at least from the Fountain of Nile i. e. from the Midland of Africa to India All this is very strange Credentius Cred. To this we answer Philologus Difficulties about the Rivers of Eden removed 1st It is not certain from the Mosaical Relation of what extent this Gan-Eden or Paradise was It might be for ought we know a very considerable part of the habitable Earth which the the Ante-diluvians were kept out of or at least were so for a considerable time Now if Eden was of so large a circumference it might afford an origin to several very distant Rivers So that Adam might only cultivate that part of it which he was first placed in 2ly It is likewise very uncertain what Rivers are meant by these Hebrew names As for the Interpreters they are so various in their Conjectures that it would be tedious to recount them It seems most probable to me that these Rivers are only some branches of the River Euphrates if so be the Channel of the River had a being before the Flood 3ly It can never be exactly known where these Rivers were because of the great alteration made in the World by the Deluge which has mightily altered or it may be obliterated their Course For I believe that at the Flood the mighty confluence of Waters over the Face of the Earth and the breaking open the Deep or Subterraneous Waters turned the Earth into something like its Chaotick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that Mud it was at the first Creation so that the Course of Rivers must be altered by the washing away their Banks and the choaking up their Channels And therefore it is in vain to seek for these Ante-diluvian Rivers in those Courses of Waters that trickle over the Earth now And therefore you do very ill to censure the Mosaical Writings because you cannot find those Rivers now a days which he speaks of before the Flood Phil. But by the way Sir if Moses describes these Rivers as they were before the Flood which you suppose to be different from what they are now this will render it a very idle and superfluous Description O.
A Conference WITH A THEIST PART I. Wherein I. Are shewn the Absurdities in the pretended Eternity of the World II. The Difficulties in the Mosaick Creation are cleared III. The Lapse of Mankind is defended against the Objections of the Unbelievers By William Nicholls D. D. The Second Edition Corrected LONDON Printed by T. W. for Francis Saunders at the Blue-Anchor in the New-Exchange and Thomas Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. TO HIS Most Excellent Majesty WILLIAM III. By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain c. May it please Your Majesty FOR some part of that time which you have been exposing Your Sacred Person and affording an unwearied Application for the Good of Christendom and the Advantage of the Reformed Religion which admirable Endeavours God of his Infinite Mercy has been Pleased to Crown with a suitable Success I have had the leisure under Your Majesty's Most Gracious Government and Protection to the utmost of my poor Abilities to defend the Cause of our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Religion against the Blasphemous Exceptions which Atheistical Men do raise against it And now through the Blessing of God having Finished this Mean Work I humble beg leave to lay my Papers at Your Majesty's Feet imploring Your Royal Acceptance and Patronage of Them which may be a Means to recommend them to some who having Thrown off all respect to our Saviour yet their Worldly Interest may oblige them to retain some for Your Majesty and perhaps the very name of so Good and so Great a Prince prefixt to this Book may occasion them to light upon something therein which may give them better Thoughts of that Holy Religion which Your Majesty does so much reverence and they most unworthily despise I am not so vain to imagine that my poor Endeavours should ever prove in a like measure successful with Your Majesty's Arms and Conduct yet by the Blessing of God I hope since Your Majesty has so Publickly discountenanced Atheism and Prophaneness I have a fairer Prospect of gaining some Advantage over the Enemies of Religion than in any other Reign which it has been my Lot to live under Dread Sir may the Good God who has hitherto prospered Your Great Undertakings continue to incline Your Heart zealously to oppose that spreading Infidelity which unless a stop be put to it will be the Ruin of these Kingdoms and force Heaven to pour out the last Vials of its Wrath upon us Now You have happily procured us Peace Abroad and our Liberties at Home may You go on in a no less Glorious Design to Maintain the Cause of our Despised Redeemer treading in the steps of Your great Predecessor Constantine who when he had setled the Peace of the Empire and established his Throne against his Opposers set himself next to the Noble Work of promoting Christianity and to make the Cross of Christ Triumph over the Blaspheming Infidels God be Thanked Unbelievers are not so Numerous now as then but they are not inferior in their Wickedness and their spight to Religion which if Your Majesty by Your Power and Authority can under the Blessing of God happily suppress and reclaim this will be a new Accession to Your Glories and will add fresh Laurels to Your Brow This will render You yet dearer to God and to all good Men of every Persuasion among us and will reconcile the Affections of Your keenest Enemies Now that Your Majesty may be as Successful in this as in Your other Great Endeavours that You may enjoy a long and happy Reign in this World and an Eternal Kingdom in the next is the Daily Prayer of Your Majesty's Most Dutiful Subject and Most Obedient and humble Servant Will. Nicholls THE PREFACE TO THE READER HAving oftentimes with Grief considered the mighty Progress which Atheism and Infidelity have made in this Age I thought it was highly necessary that those who by their Profession had made themselves Teachers and Defenders of the Christian Faith ought not to spend their whole time in inforcing the Morality of its Precepts and in confuting Innovations made in its Doctrine and Government but were obliged sometimes to afford their Aid towards the overthrowing those Principles which tend to the total subversion of our common Christianity Socinians Papists and Schismaticks it is true are guilty of very grievous and dangerous Errours but yet the worst of them maintain some part of the Ground-work of Christianity still but Atheists who deny a God and Theists who disown a Revelation make our whole Religion an Imposture and all that have to do with it either Cheats or Fools So that we that are Ministers of the Gospel are highly concerned to use the utmost of our force against these Opinions which debauch and damn so many Men whose Souls we have the charge of which tend to the discredit and total overthrow of our Profession and expose our Persons to all the foolish scoffs of idle Men. Nay farther there is the greatest danger from these Infidel Doctrines because they are espoused by Men of all Parties and by many of those who join themselves with some particular Body of Christians for it is easy to observe a great many men railing bitterly against Papists or Phanaticks when they believe no more of Jesus Christ than they do of Transubstantiation and have no more liking to the Gospel than to a long Canting Sermon Now because such Infidels lie herded among divers Sects of Christians as they are not so easily discerned so they are not so vigorously opposed and by this means they have of late gained such strength that now they begin to look formidable It is dreadful to think what numbers of Men are poisoned by Infidel Principles for Atheism and Theism are now got from the Court to the Exchange they begin to talk them in Shops and Stalls and the Cavils of Spinosa and Hobbs are grown common even to the very Rabble But the greatest encouragement which Infidelity meets with is from some Philosophical Gentlemen who find that the Scripture seems to contradict some Notions in Philosophy which they have espoused or some Experiments which they are perswaded of the Truth of and therefore for that reason they will disbelieve that and all Revealed Religion Now some of these Gentlemen being Men of Parts and Letters and able to manage an Argument they generally set upon some unlearned Christian they puzzle and confound him with Philosophick Terms and Experiments and with a Set of Jests and Bantering Expressions against Scripture and when thus they have beat the poor Man out of his Road they think they have for ever triumphed over Christianity Pudet haec opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli These Considerations have put me upon Writing this Dialogue and have encouraged me to consider the chief of their Arguments which they are wont to make use of in their Discourse or which have been published of late in Theistical Writings to
The Particulars of the Conference The Account of the Creation which Moses gives us 2. The Fall of Man presently after that Creation 3. His Redemption from the Calamities of that Fall by Jesus Christ And lastly The Truth of the Scripture upon whose Authority all this rests But if I have good reason to believe that the World was long before this pretended Creation that there are a great many Contradictions and Improbabilities in Moses his Relation of it that there is no likelihood of such a Lapse of Mankind nor is there need of any such Redemption nor that the Books which are brought to prove all this are of that Divine Authority they pretend to you may then very well conclude that I have something more to say against your Religion than some few flourishes of Wit and gay Periods which your Clergy would make you believe is all that Men of my Perswasion have to encounter it Nay I will add further if you can satisfy me in these Particulars and clear up these Difficulties I will profess Christianity to Morrow for it is not my Vices but my Objections as I told you which hinder me from joining Communion with you and I do not know but that I may live as vertuously and honestly as those who go so gravely to Church with black Caps and broad Bibles And therefore if you please Credentius we will take a Walk in your Garden and talk over a Point or two of this Subject for the Weather is too hot either to drink or to stay within Cred. I did not think Philologus to entertain you after this Philosophical Manner But pray Sir how long have you been in love with the Peripatum I thought you were too much of Epicurus his Party to take Example after Aristotle's Sect. I should think some other jolly Philosopher were a more agreeable Pattern for you to take than those stingy Speculatists who give their Friends a Walk to save their Wine But if it is resolved that you and I must enter the Lists of a Disputation this Evening I think it will not be inconvenient to walk abroad for if we shall grow too warm there we shall have Air to cool us And so Sir at your pleasure I follow Phil. This delicate Walk of Orange Trees Credentius puts me in mind of your Paradise and consequently of the Mosaick Creation which is the first point which you and I must clear up But I would not have you think that I find fault with this account because I am perswaded with Epicurus that the World was not made by God For Epicurus was a Blockhead to entertain such a silly thought as this and no Man of common sense that ever thought could be of his Opinion I am as impatient as you can be at the ridiculousness of his Philosophy for his Doctrine of the Eternity the weight and falling of Atoms is but a System of Nonsense For those weighty Atoms of his would be always falling and falling through the infinite space and would never be able to meet together to frame a World and one Atom could be no more able to join with another than the Hind-wheel can overtake the foremost And as for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Side-Motion which was afterwards added I look upon to be but a pitiful Botch to patch up this foolish Hypothesis I am fully satisfied that the World had its Origin from a Wise or Powerful Being the first Cause of all things from whose Eternal Womb all things have sprung up and whose Power and Goodness still preserves the World in the same state in which it always was So that I espy two principal faults in the account of the Mosaick Creation The Ground of Theism The first is Because he gives the World too late a being it having a subsistence infinite Ages before he says it had the second is That supposing the World was Created in Time and at the time he supposes his account is so extravagant that it cannot satisfy any reasonable man And these two points in the first place I think I shall be able to make out Cred. Well! Sir I see you have ranged your Exceptions very Methodically You are resolved to find me work enough before you have done for these Heads I presume are teeming with an abundance of Objections so that you will make me run through a Body of Divinity before I have answered them all For my part I must maintain the ground of Christianity as well as I can and I am sorry it is like to suffer so much by so ill a Defender But God be thanked I have a good Cause to set against your Wit and Parts for I take every thing which can be said against our Religion to be so inconsiderable that very weak Parts and a slender stock of Learning will be able to encounter the most doughty Arguments which can be urged against it And therefore will you be pleased to proceed upon your first Head Of the Eternity of the World Phil. Why Sir the first thing I have to say against the History of the Creation as it is related by Moses is that he makes the World to begin but between five and six Thousand years ago when it is demonstrable it has continued from all Eternity And this has been the Doctrine of the wisest Philosophers heretofore For to omit Aristotle and others of later date I find Ocellus Lucanus * Oracles of Reason p. 216. who was almost cotemporary with Moses if not before him to have been of this Opinion and he is so admirable a Philosopher that in a Question of this nature I would take his word before that of the Jewish Lawgiver But his Book of the Nature of the Vniverse which is still extant gives us so many demonstrative Arguments of the Truth of this Opinion that we need go no farther than that Excellent Treatise to confute the History of the Creation Cred. But before you proceed give me leave to remind you of a very great Errour in asserting that Ocellus the Author of that Treatise was Precedent or any thing nigh Co-temporary with Moses But supposing that Treatise to be wrote by Ocellus Lucanus that ancient Pythagorean there was no less than eleven hundred years distance between his Writing and Moses his For say that Moses wrote ten Years after the Israelites coming out of Egypt which was An. Mundi 2470. the Book of the Creation will then be wrote An. Mundi 2480 but I will make it appear that Ocellus Lucanus wrote but much about the year of the World 3580. which is eleven hundred years later Now Ocellus Lucanus lived much about the time when Plato wrote or perhaps a little before being both Cotemporaries but Ocellus the elder Man For Plato's School was in its most flourishing Condition in the 102 Olympiad when he was about fifty years old Diog. Lâ—â— Vit. Plat. but he was born as Laertius informs us from Apollodorus's Chronicks in the 88th Olympiad